The Lonely Boy
by silversrider
Summary: An old friend from the penguins returns to the zoo, leaded by his old stuffed penguin.
1. Chapter 1: Returning Dreams

_Hello :) Here is my newest story._

_I came up with this storyline quite some time ago, but now decided to work it out._

_Have fun :)_

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**Chapter 1: Returning Dreams**

Soft, black, white with orange. The boy silently picked the stuffed penguin up from his dirty covers on the bed. It was a bit filthy, dust on its fluffy beak and at one side, the filling sticked a little bit out. He let his hand run down its face. Sometimes, it was like the penguin talked to him. As if he had a friend... Like he finally had a friend. The boy sat down on his bed hugging the stuffed penguin really tightly. His room, small, dirty and dark was almost his whole world. When he wanted, he could dream of anything he wished for. Love, friends, someone who cared... The wallpaper was some sort of dark gray, although the boy could have sworn that it had been a nice white color when he was younger. He sighed and continued to stroke the penguin with his small warm hands.

Four penguins, constantly returning in the boy's dreams. The first penguin was often ahead of the others, he was bossy, chubby and stern. But the boy wasn't afraid of him. He seemed like someone he could trust with his life, or at least he did to the boy. Then there was another penguin, a large, smart one. Friendly too, but always absorbed in his own thoughts. The boy didn't get what the penguin meant that penguin often, but he could be funny. A penguin with a large scar over his beak was the third the boy remembered. Actually, he was pretty afraid of that penguin. And always a bit behind, was the fourth penguin.

Small, fluffy and kind. It felt like he had known that penguin for all his life. As if he _owed _his life to that penguin. The boy cuddled the stuffed penguin. In his dreams, he always could hear the penguins talk. It was silly, the boy did know that, but they really did. They told him funny things, things he forgot immediately after he woke up from such a dream. He only remembered that they could talk... And somehow, his dream always took place on a demolition site. And when he woke up, every time again, he wondered if his dream meant something...

The boy got up and walked silently to the window. He watched out of it and saw the small snowflakes falling down on the empty pavement. Trees, standing alone at the side of the house were leafless and sad. The boy looked over all the cars he could see at the parking place behind his house, but his dad's wasn't there yet. His dad was always working, had never time to play with him. Even on last Christmas eve. He silently watched the snowflakes grow bigger and bigger. How he had dreamed of presents and socks filled with candy... Again and again and always, every Christmas since that last one where his mother left, he had been all alone. No presents, no candy, no parents.

Even though his dad had forbid him to leave the house on his own, he decided to take a small stroll around the city. Maybe it would cheer him up. He took the stuffed penguin by its flipper and threw himself into New York City's Central Park. He didn't know where he would go, but he had the feeling he was led by something. The boy dragged the penguin happily behind him, feeling perfectly safe on the cold street of the big city. He decided after a couple of minutes to sit down on a bench in the park. Snow was still falling down and had wetted the boys clothes and old sneakers, but he didn't feel cold. He looked around and saw all the people hurrying home dragging their groceries and children behind them. Some bells rang and the boy looked around. Central Park Zoo... High gates and a tower separated it from the rest of Central Park.

He hadn't been in the zoo since he was a baby... His dad used to tell him a strange story about that zoo... And if he remembered correctly, that was the exact same place where he had gotten his penguin doll. The boy got up from the bench and walked slowly to the fences of the now closed zoo. He hugged the penguin tight in his little arms and pressed his face against the bars of the fence. Maybe the animals were lonely too... The young innocent boy thought as he walked further past the fence. He saw a small opening in it and got on his knees. He slowly worked himself and his penguin through the fence and inside the zoo. Maybe the animals would be nice company for once.

The boy walked a bit fearfully past the habitats of all the animals. The most of them seemed to be sleeping, or at least they didn't pay attention to him. Some habitats even seemed empty... He slowly took step for step, pushing the stuffed penguin even closer to his chest. He bit his lip. Was this all worth it for a little companionship? The animals couldn't talk back, they probably would only be afraid of him... But maybe they wouldn't ignore him. He would be seen for a change. Even if it was only by the pair of eyes belonging to an animal.

The boy walked and walked through the zoo, some animals following him curiously with their eyes before going back to their animal-business. He felt as if he was led by some sort of force and he walked straight to the center of the zoo. He could see a habitat with a large stone in the middle of it and it was surrounded by water. A fence separated him from the habitat and without hesitance, he climbed over it. He somehow made it almost completely dry to the platform and laid down on his back. He watched the snowflakes fall down on his face with a feeling as if he belonged there. As if he had finally found his real family and had gotten home after a long vacation. The boy closed his eyes and got his stuffed penguin closer. He had found his place. He could hear happy voices ringing through the sky and slowly, but happily, the boy fell asleep.

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_I hope you're liking it so far :)_


	2. Chapter 2: Returning Penguins

_Finally the next chapter :) Enjoy!_

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**Chapter 2: Returning Penguins  
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He felt cold and frozen to the bone. The silence of the air had filled his head and he seemed too drowsy and cold to wake up completely, but he could feel something poking him a bit roughly. The boy slowly opened his eyes and looked at the figure who was standing beside him. He tried to scoot away from the black-and-white animal, but his body refused and he couldn't do anything else but remaining in his position. His eyes closed for a second before opening again and a tiredness as he had never felt before fell over his body. A tiredness that told him to give in, to stop struggling and to let his body rest from fighting the cold. He was too cold to understand what he was doing on the with water surrounded concrete block in the snow or why there were penguins around him. They felt familiar and gave him a pleasant and welcoming feeling. His hands got still the stuffed penguin which he surely wouldn't let go easily.

"Get him inside, boys." One of the smallest penguins with a flat head called out and the boy laying on the snow blinked a little in surprise. A penguin couldn't talk, a penguin is an animal. Animals don't and can't talk... What was happening, why could he understand what those creatures were saying? "Rico, Kowalski, get the boy." The penguin ordered and the boy was almost magically lifted from the concrete. All four penguins lifted his body and then they got him out of the habitat, to a wall. The bossy penguin opened an entrance for them and then the penguins laid the boy in the tunnel and just pushed him down into it.

He wanted to scream, to grab something to keep himself from falling on his face when he would reach the end of the tunnel. He was going too quick, his hands were too cold and his voice seemed to have faded away. Suddenly, when he had expected a hard floor to collapse in with his small face and he after had closed his eyes tightly, he felt something soft catching him at the end of the tunnel. A pillow of some sort broke his fall and the boy just laid on it, too tired and too frozen to do anything about his situation, even too tired to be curious about what was going on. But he felt saved and the penguins soon stood next to him.

For the boy,it was as if he was entering a whole new world. Everywhere around him were gray walls and the windows were shaped in a round way, as if they had come from a ship. It was obvious to the boy that they now where under water, the light falling through those windows seemed a bit blocked and it just had that cold-like feeling to it. He was brought into a small room for a normal sized human boy and he looked curiously around. Four holes were made into the wall, a small table at one side of the room and a big and old TV stood in the corner. A large steel door was opposite to the wall with three of the round shaped windows and there were steel spots functioning as a ladder under a round shaped hole in the ceiling. The penguins laid the boy on the floor and one of them, a penguin with a mohawck and a large scar over his beak, got out something that looked suspiciously much like a flamethrower.

The boy tried to scoot away from the penguin who had some sort of maniacal grin onto his beak, but the others kept him on his place. "It's for your own good." A voice, silent and childish like said behind him. An apparent British accent was to it and the voice sounded so familiar. It was as if he ran into a friend from school, someone he had known quite well for a long time and then lost contact with. Yet, it wasn't a voice he could easily recognize. He had no idea where he had heard it before or how long ago that was. He just knew and felt now that as long as that certain penguin would be around him, no harm would ever happen to him. He just laid still and let the maniac warm him up with the flamethrower.

After some time, the four penguins lined up in front of him and gave him a blanket together. The boy took it thankfully with his small, human hands and held it close to his body. He looked the four animals over, so familiar, as if he had seen them so many times before. And then it hit him. Those were the penguins from his dream. The small, bossy one but of who he wasn't afraid. A large and smart penguin, friendly, but more occupied in his own world of inventions. And the penguin with the large scar, a penguin with good intents, but a scary craziness hang over him. And then there was the small chubby one, large eyed and friendly. A friend, his friend.

The penguins smiled at him and the small bossy one turned his head to the others. "Just the normal routine boy, smile and wave... I think..." It was obvious they had no idea whatsoever to do with the human boy they had just rescued. He was now occupying most of the space in their home, or at least most of the floor. They fell back in some old and rusty routines, practiced over and over again while none of them had any idea of that what they were doing was right. The boy smiled and then after a long and wide yawn, he fell back asleep. He felt a happy and warm feeling chasing the loneliness out of his body and it filled him with a feeling he had never had much before... The feeling as if he was loved. The feeling as if he had a family. His little hands grabbed the plush penguin tightly around his neck and got it close to his chest.

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_I hope you're enjoying this story!_


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